player roles advice against a def 4411

I'm having a little trouble breaking down teams who sit deep, I just played a stoke side who played a 4411 formation with 2 DMs and wide midfielders. My main formation is a 442 with two advanced attacking wingers. I tried playing standard and control to drop a bit deeper and create some space but I still went 1-0 down and struggled at the end of the match to come out with a 1-1 draw at home.

My player roles are:

GK

FBLa

CDd

CDd

FBRa

BWMs

APa

WingLs

WingRa

DLFs

AFa

What I'd like is some advice on what would be better roles to use against the formation used by Stoke, should I drop my advanced wingers back in line with my central midfielders? I was thinking maybe change my APa to a CMa? in the hope that when I use a lesser mentality it might free up some space for the CM to run into? And maybe change the DLFs to a defensive forward support to close down the opposition?

Probably need more information about the game and your overall tactical setup to really help you out but here are some initial thoughts:

I think you may be too open in the middle. A BWM will roam from position and your APa will get pretty advanced. So that leaves a big gap in the center of your formation for the opponent to exploit. Did their goal come through the middle?

Also, by playing your wingers in the AM strata, along with 2 players in the striking strata, I think you are leaving your midfield too weak (even if the two central midfielders were holding position better).

Generally, I think you should have no more than 3 players in the AM/Striking strata. One striker, two wingers; two strikers and (at most) one attacking midfielder.

So, with that in mind, maybe dropping one or both of the wingers down would help. I have had luck playing a 4-1-4-1 asymmetric where I have a raumdateur on one wing (so in the AM strata) and the wide player on the other side as a winger in the central midfield strata. But that effectively works like a 4-4-2, since the raum ends up functioning somewhat like a DLF (in terms of dropping to receive the ball).

Since you have 2 strikers, I'd probably drop both wingers down.

So maybe these changes:

4 across central midfield. one Winger attack, one support; two central midfielders (i.e. CM role) one with a defensive duty and the other with an attacking duty.

Alternatively, you can have both wingers on attack and make the CMa a CMs. I would wonder if a CMd and CMa would split too far apart and cause an issue, but it seems to me you really need someone to sit more in the hole to protect your 2 central defenders so the CM(d) is a must (or dropping someone to the DM strata).